Summary

Peter Auf der Heyde caught the football bug as an eight-year-old growing up in the suburbs of Johannesburg. In 1974 his grandmother bought him tickets to the World Cup finals in Germany and that bug became an obsession. At Rhodes University in Grahamstown Auf der Heyde, his conscience pricked by the evils of apartheid, became the only white player in the all-black Grahamstown Soccer Association. At the same time he took a degree in social work and journalism and thus began a career in football reporting which has taken him all over Africa and the world at large. His involvement with football, a predominantly black sport, and journalism made him a constant target for the South African security services. However, using his German background to great advantage, Auf der Heyde overcame these problems and has been in a unique position to follow soccer in Africa over the last 20 years. Has Anybody Got A Whistle? is Auf der Heyde's journey through African football, a journey that has encompassed corruption at the highest levels, witchcraft, disasters on an unprecedented scale and murder.. Moreover, the political and social changes on the African continent over the last 20 years have been m